Mobile communication devices have become ubiquitous in recent years. Countless individuals communicate with one another using mobile communication devices and, as a result, many people have access to a communication device at all times. This increased availability has led to greater safety for pedestrians, motorists, and other individuals in situations where they do not have access to conventional landline telephones.
Unlike with conventional landline telephones, however, there is no a fixed association between a mobile communication device and its location. As a result, in emergency situations, emergency service providers cannot determine the location of a caller calling on a mobile device based simply on the phone number associated with the device. If the caller becomes incapacitated during the call, disconnected, or otherwise prevented from communicating with the emergency service provider, the emergency service provider may be unable to locate and assist the caller. Furthermore, even if the caller is able to communicate with the emergency service provider, in many cases the caller may be unable to determine his or her location. As a result, there is an increasing need for effective techniques to establish the location of mobile communication devices.
However, the surge in mobile communications has led to increasingly complex communication networks, as service providers struggle to accommodate the ever-growing number of users. As a result of this complexity, interfacing with and extracting information from mobile communication networks has likewise increased in complexity. Components and systems designed to interoperate with mobile communication devices have become more expensive and complicated, hampering the development and implementation of solutions for locating mobile communication devices.